GPS location tracking | Breaking Cybersecurity News | The Hacker News

If you are using WhatsApp to chit-chat with your friends or relatives, then you should be careful about sharing your location with them using WhatsApp 'Location Share' feature. No doubt, WhatsApp communication between your phone and company's server is now encrypted with SSL, which means whatever you are sharing with your friends, is secured from the man-in-the-middle attacks . But the extremely popular instant messaging service for Smartphones that delivers more than 1 billion messages per day has another serious security issue. According to Researchers at UNH Cyber Forensics Research & Education Group , WhatsApp location sharing service could expose your location to hackers or Spy Agencies. While sharing the location on WhatsApp users need to first locate themselves on Google Map within the app window, as shown:  Once selected, WhatsApp fetches the location and thumbnail (an image) from the Google Map service to share it as the message icon, but unfortunately Wh

A team of Researchers at Rutgers University has developed an Android application which will notify you every time, whenever an app installed on your Smartphone accesses the GPS functionality. Smartphone is a multipurpose device, having features of both a mobile phone and a computer, allowing us to talk, text, access personal and official e-mail, browse the Internet, make purchases, manage bank accounts, and take pictures. Smartphone also help you to find the way to your destination using GPS (Global Positioning System) technology. Unlike many of our computers, our Smartphones are always with us and many of us rarely turn them off, that means your Smartphone even can be abused to track your real time location on the map. There are many legitimate applications which need your location in order to function properly and to enhance the app features, for example- Zomato app can give the list of all restaurants near you, WeChat like social messaging apps allows you to get

The  ransomware industry surged in 2023  as it saw an alarming 55.5% increase in victims worldwide, reaching a staggering 5,070.  But 2024 is starting off showing a very different picture.  While the numbers skyrocketed in Q4 2023 with 1309 cases, in Q1 2024, the ransomware industry was down to 1,048 cases. This is a 22% decrease in ransomware attacks compared to Q4 2023. Figure 1: Victims per quarter There could be several reasons for this significant drop.  Reason 1: The Law Enforcement Intervention Firstly, law enforcement has upped the ante in 2024 with actions against both LockBit and ALPHV. The LockBit Arrests In February, an international operation named "Operation Cronos" culminated in the arrest of at least three associates of the infamous LockBit ransomware syndicate in Poland and Ukraine.  Law enforcement from multiple countries collaborated to take down LockBit's infrastructure. This included seizing their dark web domains and gaining access to their backend sys

Believe it or not, but the National Security Agency (NSA) is gathering nearly 5 billion records a day on mobile phone locations around the world. Snowden released documents that show that the NSA is tracking cell phone locations the world over as well as map the relationships of the mobile phone user and of course the purpose of this program is to identify terrorists and their networks overseas.  " Sophisticated mathematical techniques enable NSA analysts to map cell phone owners' relationships by correlating their patterns of movement over time with thousands or millions of other phone users who cross their paths. " The Washington Post wrote. According to the WP, the NSA's tracking tool is known as CO-TRAVELER , that tracks the locations of cell phones abroad as well as domestic cell phones that place calls abroad and capable of tracking cell phones even when they're not being used. ' U.S. Officials said the programs that collect and analyze location data are

The US government is claiming that authorities do not need court warrants to affix GPS devices to vehicles to monitor their every move. t's been more than a year since a Supreme Court decision established that affixing a GPS tracking device to a vehicle constitutes a search under the constitution. The decision, United States vs. Jones , throws out the drug-related conviction of nightclub owner Antoine Jones. The GPS locator was installed the day after the warrant expired and while the vehicle was outside of the department's jurisdiction, and DC police tracked Jones for nearly a month after installation before arresting him. " Requiring a warrant and probable cause before officers may attach a GPS device to a vehicle, which is inherently mobile and may no longer be at the location observed when the warrant is obtained, would seriously impede the government's ability to investigate drug trafficking, terrorism, and other crimes. Law enforcement officers co

Samsung which is currently believed to the highest Smartphones Seller in the World is now providing a Remote tracking solution in all its smartphones to Track the lost phone with the name " Samsung Dive ". The Service is based on the Architecture which primarily acquires precise location of the smart phone using it GPS and other subsidiary location acquisition techniques. The Service is basically meant to be used by the users to track their phone in case of theft or lost phone. Security Researcher Jiten Jain discovered that this GPS based location tracking service provided by manufacturer (Samsung) is also vulnerable to Theft and Malwares. To use this inbuilt tracking Service, User has to simply create an account with Samsung (www.samsungdive.com). Users than have to enable remote services to track device and wipe data remotely. The permission can be disabled or modified only by the Samsung account holder after logging in and cannot be disabled by anyone else.